Rich Franklin’s Ultimate Fighter 11 Assistant Coaches Revealed
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Jun 3, 2010 at 2:25 pm ET23 Comments
After dismissing coach Tito Ortiz and announcing Rich Franklin as his replacement on Wednesday’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter 11, UFC President Dana White teased that another former champion would join Franklin in helping Kris McCray prepare for his semifinal rematch with Chuck Liddell’s Josh Bryant.
However, in the official recap of the show on UFC.com, it is (accidentally?) revealed that Franklin’s assistant coaches will be former light heavyweight champ and The Ultimate Fighter winner Forrest Griffin and lightweight contenders Gray Maynard and Tyson Griffin.
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Pictured: Rich Franklin
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Holy crap! no kidding. Forrest was pretty good back in TUF 7 so it should be good to see what he can do for the failing Team Punishment.
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=82330
Anyone have any idea if there will be more fights added to the Main Card of the Finale? Right now the Rumors section only has three fights, and it’s pretty weak. Nothing against the four gentlemen listed, of course…
As soon as Dana White finishes throwing darts at Joe Silva’s “Wall-O-Fighters”, we’ll get the rest of the card.
;-)
Also, what did Franklin do to get assistant coaches, pull up in front of Xtreme Couture in his UFC/TUF H2 and say, “hey, anyone want to go screw around at the TUF house for a couple of weeks with Team [taking] Punishment?”
I know right. Maybe it’s just me, but I have never associated those guys (assistants) with Franklin. But hey if you are already living and training in LV, why not take a few extra dollars to do the show. You can’t fail. If Kris loses, he was trained by Ortiz, if he wins; you put together a good fight plan.
More than likely Dana asked them to help out for remaining six days. Couture’s gym is in vegas so that only makes sense.
There will be at least four fights on the main card, so we’re looking at at least one fight being added, likely featuring the semifinalists, but nothing will be announced until the final episode.
Several more fights, likely including castmembers, will also be added to the prelims.
How much can you actually learn and retain in 6 days of training? Nice cast of Extreme Couture vets for trainers but in 6 days of training you really aren’t going to overhaul your fight game and change things up all that drastically. More than anything it’s just mental preparation for your upcoming fight. Which is unfortunate for the Ortiz lone fighter, cause the new coaches know NOTHING about anyone on the show. Yeah they may have watched tapes, but Tito was there for 6 weeks, and has seen every fight, and knows the competition. Franklin, Griffin and Griffin do not.
More than anything, I think it’s Dana White’s way of APOLOGIZING to the fans who wanted to see Liddell vs Ortiz 3 and were BS’d this whole season. Well, the ones who don’t get on the internet anyways. Thanks Dana…. some UFC fighters for 1 episode. Whoopie.
Wait…who wanted to see liddell/ortiz 3? Lol
I’m not 100% convinced that even Tito wanted to fight Chuck a third time…
;-)
In 6 days of training with new people I learned I was telegraphing my right jab-left hook to single leg combo, a new set-up for an armbar, and different variations passing guard. In short, six days with a new group of quality instructors can teach you a lot if you have the right mindset.
The only guys who wanted to see Ortiz-Liddell 3 are Jenna’s dad, John Hackleman, and Chuck himself.
I don’t know about the rest of u guys but I can’t stand gray Maynard … Not sure why !
I trained with Gray before TUF & he is a genuinely nice guy. At grapplers quest after TUf he sat and talked to everyone who approached him. before he learned how to box his style was plain boring, maybe thats why.
didn’t help his nickname is the bully and he’s a wrestler ;)
IMO you’d better get used to having Maynard around, because he’s most likely going to be a force at 155 for the foreseeable future…
Assuming he doesn’t knock himself out again.
I kinda want to like Maynard – I mean he isn’t a terrible fighter -, but lately he’s just been one of those guys that goes the entire three rounds and wins with points. Not as boring to watch as Couture and Fitch, but still pretty “meh”… but a win is a win I guess.
I’m rooting for Florian to beat Maynard at UFC 118, but mostly I just want it to be a good match.
I think Franklin coming in was just to satisfy fans and ratings. If you think about it, there have been situations before where team members have to fight on the show, and the coaching staffs make adjustments and still find a way to make sure both fighters get coached.
Sometimes, the coaching team splits up, sometimes the opposing coach lends a hand. With 6 days left of filming, they could have done that here. But bringing in a new coach makes people want to tune in and possibly get fans excited about a new bout. Maybe even create some drama between Liddell and Franklin….I doubt it though.
There won’t be any drama between Franklin and Liddell…for one I have never seen Franklin talk crap about anyone and two he and chuck are actually friends(notice it didn’t stop them from fighting eachother)…and Rich took this fight on short notice he wasnt scheduled to fight until August. I think it will be a good fight but I believe Rich will win…still hard to choose though.
Rich didn’t exactly take this fight on short notice, he was brought in to the show in March so he’s had plenty of time to prepare, and from my recollection, following his surgery, early summer/late spring is when he planned on returning to action.
I think Dana felt that by bringing in the extra names / firepower, it kinda makes up for the fact that they team lost their coach.
Years ago I was a big Tito Ortiz fan but after his loss to Forest Griffin, and all the excuses Tito was telling Joe Rogen. Now he walks out on his team with a bunch of lame ass excuses just admit it Tito Ortiz is scared of Chuck. and Tito had enough nerve to call Yager a puss!!!
Yeah, Tito is so scared of Chuck he got a completely unnecessary neck surgery… yeah… that’s it.
That sucks